Helmfeld routed a Danish division, was the first gleam of good luck, and
on the 4th of December, on the tableland of Helgonaback, near Lund, the
young Swedish monarch defeated Christian V. of Denmark, who also
commanded his army in person. After a ferocious contest, the Danes were
practically annihilated. The battle of Lund was, relatively to the
number engaged, one of the bloodiest engagements of modern times. More
than half the combatants (8357, of whom 3000 were Swedes) actually
perished on the battle-field. All the Swedish commanders showed
remarkable ability, but the chief glory of the day indisputably belongs
to Charles XI. This great victory restored to the Swedes their
self-confidence and prestige. In the following year, Charles with 9000
men routed 12,000 Danes near Malmo (July 15, 1678). This proved to be
the last pitched battle of the war, the Danes never again venturing to
attack their once more invincible enemy in the open field. In 1679 Louis
XIV. dictated the terms of a general pacification, and Charles XI, who
bitterly resented "the insufferable tutelage" of the French king, was
forced at last to acquiesce in a peace which at least left his empire
practically intact. Charles devoted the rest of his life to the gigantic
task of rehabilitating Sweden by means of a _reduktion_, or recovery of
alienated crown lands, a process which involved the examination of every
title deed in the kingdom, and resulted in the complete readjustment of
the finances. But vast as it was, the _reduktion_ represents only a
tithe of Charles XI.'s immense activity. The constructive part of his
administration was equally thorough-going, and entirely beneficial.
Here, too, everything was due to his personal initiative. Finance,
commerce, the national armaments by sea and land, judicial procedure,
church government, education, even art and science--everything, in
short--emerged recast from his shaping hand. Charles XI. died on the 5th
of April 1697, in his forty-first year. By his beloved consort Ulrica
Leonora of Denmark, from the shock of whose death in July 1693 he never
recovered, he had seven children, of whom only three survived him, a son
Charles, and two daughters, Hedwig Sophia, duchess of Holstein, and
Ulrica Leonora, who ultimately succeeded her brother on the Swedish
throne. After Gustavus Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus Charles XI. was,
perhaps, the greatest of all the kings of Sweden. His modest, homespun
figure has indeed be